A woman passenger threw hot water a flight attendant and, along with her three friends, created such a ruckus on board that an AirAsia flight to Nanjing was forced to return to Bangkok on Thursday night. One of the four even threatened to blow up the plane.

After the flight landed in Bangkok, the four were fined and made to pay compensation for the injuries they had caused to the flight attendant.

After eventually landing in Nanjing on Saturday, the four, two men and two women, reportedly refused to leave until the flight crew gave them a written testimony that whatever had been reported about their bad behavior was false.

This reminds one of an ugly incident in 2012 when a brawl between two Chinese passengers onboard a Swiss flight forced it to return to base after flying for six hours. The two were arrested for disrupting order and threatening the safety of the flight.

Of course, such isolated incidents do not represent the Chinese people. But they do tarnish their image.

No matter how angry or hurt the four AirAsia passengers were, they had no right to behave the way they did. Besides, every passenger onboard a flight has to abide by rules and whatever the flight attendants say for the security of all passengers.

The ugly incident could have been avoided had the four abided by the rules and shown some respect for their fellow passengers. What was the woman thinking when she scalded the attendant with hot water? And were they aware that they were risking the security of the flight itself?

If they were not satisfied with the service of the flight attendant, they could have lodged a complaint against her. They could have even talked to the captain.

But no, they believed that behaving like barbarians would get them what they wanted, forgetting that civility demands that a fellow human being be treated as an equal. Such uncivilized behavior will not be accepted anywhere, let alone onboard a flight.

The four may be too wealthy to care about the money they paid as fine and compensation. But no amount of money can buy them back their lost reputation. Nor can money heal the harm they have caused to other Chinese tourists.

The incident should serve as a lesson not just for the four culprits, but also for all Chinese to behave properly to get respect.